Wednesday, 8 September 2010

When its Gulf Of Mexico operation turned to custard, or rather floating crude, BP raised its spend on search advertising from a minuscule $US57,000 per month to a whopping $3.6 million; for June alone.

According to an internal Google document obtained by the Advertising Age this financial gusher pushed BP into the upper echelons of Google Ad spend.

Mind you, these statistics need to be put into context. BP's total advertising spend to head off the PR crisis was $100 million, much of which was spent on television.

Google has become a key tool for reputation management alongside social media. The desire to sway or counter public opinion is now best addressed in cyberspace to reach the broadest audience and counteract negative buzz.

Kevin Ryan, CEO of Motivity Marketing, is reported by the Advertising Age as saying:

"Our review of $574 million of Google's U.S. billings over the first half of 2010 shows plenty of global corporations spending millions each month on search advertising, as well as a great many huge corporations that spend very little, if anything, at all on search".

AT&T were the biggest spenders in the US in June, spending more than $8 million on Adwords in support of its iPhone launch.

Not all of the biggest brands engaged in advertising binge. GM, Walt Disney, Eastman Kodak and BMW spent less than half a million in the same month.

Meanwhile the greening of the planet is uppermost in the mind of a company called Recyclebank. The company teams with municipalities to add chips to recycling bins to monitor activity.

It aims to motivate individuals in communities to engage in green actions that have a positive impact on the environment.

In an August interview with EConsultancy's Rebecca Lieb, CMO Ian Yolles says:

"What we’re interested in is educating consumers about what they can do, and positive impacts that they can make, and also rewarding them, giving them this sort of economic carrot to do so. In terms of our marketing partners, what we’re interested in is telling the story and building awareness of the positive things that our marketing partners are doing that are moving them further down this road towards greater and greater sustainability as a brand and business"

According to Econsultancy, consumers receive points, redeemable for goods and services, from companies ranging from Coca-Cola to Yoplait to eBay. Everyone wins: localities have less landfill, consumers are rewarded for good behaviour, and brands can bask in a do-gooder, green glow.

A notable omission from Recyclebank's list of sponsors is BP, but this may only be a matter of time?